Doc Thought

In response to the news that a Rhode Island public school committee has decided not to appeal a court decision to remove a prayer banner from its auditorium: One wonders how the courts do not blush to rule that this somehow qualifies as the establishment of a religion.  Suppose the school hung the equivalent of an atheist religious banner right next to this one, giving more of a sampling of religious calls to self improvement.  It would be hard to argue then that this was not simply a display of several religious statements pertaining to personal improvement.  (And yes, atheism is very much a religion in that it is one of many views about the nature of ultimate reality, not known with certitude, requiring faith, in this case that the very base of our reality is mindless, or non-personal.)  That said, what would such a banner look like?   Maybe they could start the address to mindless matter:  "Dear mindless matter at the bedrock of existence, we speak...

The article below reports the close vote of the Indiana Senate to abolish the fees forced on non-union employees.  An analysis follows. Indiana Senate votes 28-22 for right-to-work bill Published January 23, 2012 | Associated Press Senate has voted to approve the right-to-work bill that has prompted the legislative boycotts by House Democrats. The  Republican -dominated Senate voted 28-22 in favor of the proposal Monday evening. The bill prohibits companies and unions from agreeing to contracts that require workers who aren't union members to pay representation fees. Republican Sen. Carlin Yoder of Middlebury argued the bill not only would help attract business to Indiana but also give workers freedom to decide what to do with their money. Democratic Sen. Vi Simpson of Bloomington questioned whether the law was needed. She says good companies such as  Honda  and  Toyota  have expanded in Indiana in recent years without it. Nine Rep...

The term 'greed' is commonly tossed out as an explanation for this country's economic woes.  This is broadly understood as the "evil" desire of those in business, especially "big" business, to make a profit.  The following clarifies where this intellectual laziness or intellectual dishonesty leads: Often, the term "greed" is used negatively to refer to a desire to make a profit. This is wrong however, because a profit is the measure of value that has been created by a man-- a value that did not exist before. If a man makes no profit - he planted four potatoes and harvested four potatoes. To seek to produce new value, by thought and effort and time to create a product or provide a service of quality by the most efficient means -- this is the very definition of GOOD. But for this desire, and the (shrinking) freedom that makes it possible, we could not produce and then trade for the ability to feed our family, shelter ourselves, obtain the mater...

God created an existence in which individuals are sacred. No real good can be achieved for anyone by either an individual killing or harming himself for the supposed benefit of others, nor by an individual killing or harming others for the supposed benefit of himself. The message of the cross was not that we should all be killing ourselves for each other. When man kills the human incarnation of his creator, the lesson is NOT that this is the model for all human relations, by the evil doctrine that sacrifice is the criterion of the good. It is true that when one loves another individual to the greatest degree possible, he is willing to die for that other, because an existence devoid of that individual is not deemed worthwhile. It is one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated to conclude from this that then people all live as spiritual vampires either yielding their own blood to prove love of others, or demanding others' blood as proof of their love for him. Among other thi...

The following was a response to the news of multi-million dollar bonuses to the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The outrage from those who pushed these institutions into being a major cause of the housing bubble and crash is laughable. Frank, Reid, Pelosi and others should have their pensions, special health packages, and salaries revoked for what they blame on Fannie and Freddie. Of course we don't hear much outrage that *they* are still being compensated in grand manner. Anyway, here's the response: Sigh. There are so many people who should be IN JAIL for the unspeakable fraud that was the housing bubble. Start with Clinton's white house. They forced the regulatory changes that penalized lenders if they DIDN'T make bad loans (bad by any standard traditional measurement --- "good" if being a low income supposed ethnic minority on welfare was counted as a positive indicator of ability to repay.) The regulations also rewarded lenders who m...

Published on American Thinker.

What is the economic system of America? I can imagine the consternation of a well informed student attempting to answer that question for a class. One hundred years ago, he could have answered "capitalism" and been about 99% correct. Today, what we have here is an unholy mixture - a small bit of capitalism, a heaping spoonful of socialism, and a liberal dousing of corporatism. Capitalism is a politico-economic system in which property and specifically the means of any production are privately owned, and men deal with one another as traders - trading value for value. Socialism places property under the (in name) ownership of the entire public, and production and value are distributed (by a few) in an equitable manner "to all" as determined by 'the few.' Corporatism can exist in various forms along with socialism or capitalism, but is generally a deviant form of capitalism in which the government (which is supposed to be protecting the individual rights of t...